Mike's musings

Jo's show

(backposting) Jo's show tonight, so I needed to get back in good time, as we weren't expecting Kate and Mac (my parents-in-law) until after Moo was due to take Jo off to Halstead. I managed to get away OK, although, in the end, K & M arrived only 5-10 minutes after me.

Miri was a darling, and went to bed very well, and I had a lovely meal with Kate and Mac. Moo and Jo didn't get back till around 1045, and Jo was completely shattered. She actually fell asleep as she undid her seatbelt: I've never seen anything like it!

Labels: ballet, Jo

Chickenpox

Well, it's probably been coming for a while: Miri has chickenpox. It does explain her being off colour recently.

Oh, and this morning, the girls were awake a bit early, but stayed in their room. And when I went in, I found Jo reading to Miri. And she was reading a proper book, on her own, for the first time. What we've been calling a "chapter book": one of these. Not great literature, but well done her.

Labels: books, illness, Jo, miri

More school, more work, family

(backposting) What a day! It started with Moo accompanying Jojo to school for her second day: the school likes parents to come in early on in term to get an idea of what it's like, which is an excellent idea. Moo was very impressed with the teacher, and amused by Jo, who wasn't always good at waiting to be called on when she knew the answer to a question - and even when she _did_ wait, would protest: "but I knew the answer, I really did." Best one, though was:

Teacher: "whose birthday do we celebrate on Christmas Day? Josephine?"

Jojo: "Jesus'. And my friend Sennen's, of course."

Ah - and I should have said yesterday that Jojo has decided that she wants the teacher to call her "Josephine", rather than Jojo. I rather like that.

At lunch, a friend of Moo's from college, Sophie, came with her two kids. I didn't get to spend much time with her, though, as work was very busy. Good, interesting, challenging stuff, though - the job's working well, I'm pleased to say.

Last thing to report on Jojo, a little before going to bed who was rhapsodising about one of her friends - a girl - and how much she loved her. She suddenly came out with "Daddy, girls _can_ marry girls, can't they?" I was really proud, "Yes, Jojo, they _can_." Good for her.

Moo and I watched Buffy episodes until Jim (my brother) and Nina (his wife) turned up with their two kids. We got the kids to sleep pretty quickly, and stayed up chatting, eating and drinking till - ooh, well after 11. Really good to see them.

Labels: friends, homosexuality, Jo, work

A family service

(backposting) Given Miri's illness yesterday - she seems to be improving today - I'd let Geoff know that I might not make the 0800 service with him in Colne Engaine, which I didn't (though it was Jo who had me up in the night, in the end), but I took Jo to a family service at 1000. She did very well, and I spent lots of time beforehand trying to explain why she couldn't be with me all the time. The main tack was to explain that it could be distracting to other people, who might want to be thinking about something else. We talked about things that she doesn't like being distracted from (colouring, for instance), and I think that helped her to understand.

I also took her swimming this afternoon. Moo stayed at home with Miri - not fair to take her until things have settled down properly - and Jo and I had a great time. She's a really good swimmer now.

Labels: Jo, services, swimming

Ladies' toilet

After a lovely meal with Jim, Nina, Poll, Lee, Florence and Frankie, we popped to Sainsbury's to do some shopping. At the end, Jo said she needed a wee, so I took her off to the toilets. The gents were frankly disgusting, and rather than doing the sensible thing and taking her into the disabled toilet, I accepted Jo's suggestion that she should go into the ladies. I stood outside, noting people going in and coming out: there was always someone in there at the same time.

After a few minutes, I heard, "Daddy? Daddy?". I opened the door a couple of centimetres, and said "yes?". "Daddy, my croc has come off." "Just put it on later."

I closed the door. Another minute or so elapsed. "Daddy? I need help with my poo."

A laughing teenager opened the door and suggested I come in, which I did, and waited outside the door while Jo insisted finishing some more of her poo. A woman came out of the other occupied cubicle, laughing at me. In the end, Jo let me in.

The ladies' emptied, and I tried to chivvy Jo on, to no avail. Another woman came and entered a cubicle. "Shhh," I said as quietly as I could to Jo. "Why? Why do you want me to be quiet?" "Shhh!"

The other person finished, and left, and I thought we were clear, but another woman came in and occupied a cubicle. Jo finished, and again I thought we were clear, but she took ages to get her pants (two pairs?) and tights up: and just as we were unlocking the cubicle door, there was a flush from the other cubicle. I have literally never washed my hands and ushered a child out of a toilet quicker.

Moo laughed like a drain.

Labels: humour, Jo

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty time!

(backposting) Jo's birthday and party today. The big package of party things which Moo ordered over a week ago hadn't arrived by the time I got Jo back from ballet (I'd had Miri, too, to allow Moo to do baking in quiet), and so I had to make an emergency trip to Sainsbury's (again with both girls). Let's not start on how cross Moo will be on the phone on Monday with the people who didn't ship stuff in time, but we got the party started (just about) on time. It was close getting everything set up, but we had a real blast. Tosha came and painted lots of faces, Nik came and got lots of kids very excited and tired by running around a lot. I organised party games: bobbing apples and face paints don't mix...; sleeping lions (to "Oh so quiet" by Björk); dancing ("Timewarp" and "Shake your tailfeather", which went down very well with the kids) and general fun.

How tired were the girls afterwards...? Very, very tired.

Labels: birthday, Jo, party

"Why's that man got a gun, Mummy?"

These are not words you want to hear on a tube in London. We were stopped, with the doors open, at a station, and Jo and Moo were facing the platform, while I was facing away. You know when the adrenalin suddenly kicks in, and you start thinking very, very quickly? One of those times. Moo, answered, rather calmly, "he's in a film, Jo," and only then saw my reaction. It was, of course, just a poster, and a significant relief...

We were in London because Jo wanted to go to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Unluckily, Jo wasn't the only child to have this idea, and we weren't the only parents to agree to the plan. South Kensington tube station was closed due to over-crowding, so we got off at Gloucester Road tube, with hundreds of other people, from whence we walked to join the queues the stretched from the entrance, down the ramp, snaking round the grounds, and for about 100m on the pavement. It moved fairly quickly, and we decided not to join the queue that wound round the main hall towards the full dinosaur exhibit: another 150m or so, at a guess. Instead, we wandered round some of the other halls, saw some aquatic fossils, had some lunch (expensive, but good food), and then looked at the evolution exhibits. I gave Jo a quick lecture on evolution and how Charles Darwin (whose statue now sits on the stairs overlooking the main hall) is a hero. I'm not sure how much she understood about Australopithecus' relationship to modern humans, but she seemed interested and took some of it in.

Went home (via Gloucester Road again, as South Kensington tube was closed again), and Jo, who was on her knees with tiredness, fell asleep in the car. Back home for fish and chips with Miri (who was very pleased to see us!) and Mel. The girls fell asleep very, very quickly, and we've spent the rest of the evening to now wrapping presents, baking muffins, cakes and the rest and preparing for the party tomorrow. How can it be so much hard work?

A tiring day, but a good one.

Labels: Jo, London, science

Annual trip to A & E

We last visited an A & E on Jo's birthday in February last year, so it was clearly time for another trip. This time, it was Miri's turn, which makes a refreshing change. Moo was away late, and I was just about to take the girls upstairs to bed, as they were both very, very tired, and was sitting on the sofa. Miri was clambering around behind me, and suddenly she started to cry loudly. I was pretty sure, within seconds, that it was the same problem that Jo's had a couple of times: the ligament in the elbow pops out. It's easy to put back in, but I've never managed to do it myself: partly because you don't want to upset the poor child any more than they already are.

So, I called Moo for ideas, and ended up calling the (fantastic) Kristi and Paul, parents of Jo and Miri's friends Louie and Poppy, and Kristi soon came around to take care Jo back to their house, and to lend me a car seat (Moo had both of our ones in her car, of course). Moo suggested I call the out-of-hours doctors' service, and I wasted 15 minutes or so waiting for them to call back before heading off for Addenbrooke's A & E. When they did get back to me, they advised me to do that anyway, so that was fine.

I'd given Miri some Calpol, and she'd calmed down pretty quickly, and slept all the way to Cambridge. And then we were seen pretty quickly, and the nurse's examination actually put the ligament back in place (in fact, just taking her top off did it, which is a good trick to know for next time). This avoided an hour or more wait, and we got back home around 2030. Mel had got a text from Kristi, and had phoned them, and when she'd spoken to Jo, Jo had clearly been a bit upset, so Mel had come over and picked her up. Jo was asleep by the time I got back, and Mel's just a complete star. In fact, Jo had a been a complete star, too, and had got herself changed really quickly and without any hassle when I asked her. And she went off with Kristi without any complaint, too, so I'm going to find a really nice treat for her tomorrow morning.

And, for extra excitement, we're expecting more snow tonight...

Labels: hospital, illness, Jo, miri

New Year

I was considering a long post about the fun we had at Si and D's last night, about how good profiteroles are for hangovers, about having a New Year's Day breakfast at Dicken's Restaurant in Halstead (full fry-up, etc.), about how Jo managed to stay up past midnight, all that.

But it took us two hours to get Jo to sleep, and I just don't have the energy.

Labels: Jo, sleep

More gems from Jo

Jo: Daddy: what's a pedant?
(My job here is done)

Jo (tying an orange dressing-gown cord around the ear of one of her bears, who's allegedly been suffering from a sick bug for several weeks now): I'm tying the orange ribbon to her ear to stop her being sick.
Moo: will that make her feel better?
Me: is it an anti-emetic?
Jo: no, it's mine. It doesn't belong to anyone else.
(We suspect that she believes that she has an aunt about whom she didn't know before today, called "Emetic"...)

Labels: humour, Jo

Back to church

I didn't get to church last Sunday, as I was ill, so it was lovely to be back today. I deaconed at the 0800, at which James presided. We had 3 in the congregation, but "where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name..." It makes no difference: Christ's there.

After that we took the girls swimming, and in the afternoon we all went to the Christingle service at St Andrew's, Halstead. It's come to my attention that not everyone knows what a Christingle service is, but you can find some resources from the Children's Society by following the link. Basically, there's a service which revolves round the children in the congregation having a lit candle each, with the candle (the Light of the World) placed in an orange (the World), surrounded by a red ribbon or tape (the Blood of Christ) and with four sticks stuck into the orange, with sweets and dried fruit stuck on them (God's gifts to the world/the 4 seasons).

I was preaching, and invited the children to the front: "Sometimes during family services like this we have people moving around. Now, I'm going to be _very_ cross indeed if there are any adults moving around at all. On the other hand, I'm going to need some help, so it would be great if the children could come to the front to do that." I had fun, and I think the kids did, too. And Jo came and sat with me at the front of the church for the end of the service for the first time. I was so happy.

Labels: church, Jo, preaching

And if you were to take a bus...

Not a phrase you expect to hear from a 3 and 3 quarters year old, even when discussing "Pinkland", an imaginary location to which she was giving me directions. Good use of the subjunctive.

Labels: Jo

The slide

As I put on my Facebook status this morning, Jo made a representation of Jesus on the cross using wooden blocks this morning. Then she added a slide for him. Which I think is nice. Bibically difficult to defend, but a kind thought, and adds a whole new slant to Luke 23:35 ("... He saved others; let him save himself...").

Labels: bible, Jo

You do the thinking, I'll do the drawing

Today I was treated to a drawing masterclass by Jojo. She likes doing this, and the way it basically goes is that she does some drawing first, and then either demolishes your pitiful attempts at artistic endeavour or takes over and does it all herself. Today's title comes from her teaching me how to draw a jellyfish. I'd suggested that we draw it in the sea, but she said that we didn't need to, but that we really had to think about being in the sea: "you do the thinking, I'll do the drawing".

Previously she'd been showing me how to draw a face, had draw a circle, made one dot for an eye, and then closed her own eyes, put her fingers in them, and then put in the other dot and another one for a nose.

Labels: Jo

Two little girls

Miri's going all 2-year-old tantrum practice at the moment. She's tired, and when she's tired, she has problems expressing herself. Unlike Jo, who was talking quite well by this stage, she can't express what she wants, and is getting rather frustrated by this. If you give her time, and give her options, she can usually explain, as she understands lots and lots. Pretty much everything, these days, but if you haven't got a _clue_ what she wants, trying to get on her wavelength can be very difficult.

Jo, on the other hand, has recently got reading. She's spelling out words for herself, and she's now at the stage where you can tell her to pick something (a menu option on a computer, for instance), based on what it says, as she can have a good go at idnetifying the relevant word. We also took her swimming today, and, well, she can swim. On her front and on her back. It's still a little frantic except that she's now worked out that if she kicks more slowly, it works better and she gets less tired.

About 20 minutes ago, Moo heard something outside the sitting room, and went out. She called me, and said it was Jo. I thought she'd discovered Jo dead or severely ill at the bottom of the stairs. She'd made her way through the stairgate (she's never been known to do this before, though she's said she could), and come downstairs. She was fine, and said that she'd been woken up by the bangs (fireworks). Moo put her back to bed. We think that maybe she'd been sleepwalking, or nearly so.

Labels: Jo, miri

A hard day

A hard day working - three meetings round Cambridge - and then back home. Jo was sick again - in Waitrose this time.

Labels: illness, Jo, work

Jo's still ill

Poor Jo was sick again twice today. She's fine between times, but it's horrid for her.

Labels: illness, Jo

Three issues to cover

You (that's the thousands of readers I have, of course) don't often get 3 issues in one posting. Well, actually you often do, but I don't usually bother to separate them out. Today you do, and I am. Lucky you.

Jo

It's really hard having a child who's ill. In fact, Jo had finished throwing up by the time I got back home from church, but she had thrown up 4 times between my leaving at 0720 and my return around 1210. Moo had to deal with it. This is one of the nightmares about having multiple commitments - particularly ones I care about - is having to leave Catherine to deal with problems which a) it's not fair that she has to deal with on her own; and b) that I want to be involved with myself.

Anyway, Jo was much better by this afternoon, and managed to keep a simple supper down. Hopefully she'll sleep well. Hopefully she (and Miri) will sleep through past 0800. Yeah, right. Past 0600 would be a miracle.

Stewardship

I preached on stewardship today. It was a very hard sermon to prepare, and pretty hard to preach, but I was quite pleased. I gave a shorter version to the 0800, and the full version to 1000. I based it (to the surprise of James, the other curate!) on justification by faith alone. It's not an obvious starting point, I grant you, but for me, it made sense. The people who built - or caused to be built - our church in Halstead paid the church in tithes, and gave money in gifts, partly because the doctrine of the medi&aedigraph;val Catholic church was that doing good works helps in getting to heaven: alongside faith, of course. I won't go into current Roman Catholic teaching, but I'm firmly of the opposite view: that we are justified by faith alone.

I noted that as citizens of England, we have rights to use the church - the parish church in Halstead - for marriages, baptisms, funerals, and other services- as do all the other people who live in the parish. And I pointed out that we have a set of responsibilities that go along with those rights: to maintain that set of rights of ourselves, for those who don't usually exercise them, for those who came before us, and for those who will come after.

But more than that, we have a covenant with God - a new covenant, a new testament - and there are responsibilities entailed with that. And that's where we start with thinking about or financial responsibilities to God's church. And its people. And its God.

Not just at the front

During intercessions today, I left my seat at the front of the church and went to be beside someone who was crying. The details aren't important: I supported this person and put my arm around them. I thought about it - for probably under a second - before I did it. But it was abundantly clear to me that if I can sit at the front of the church, up three steps, and leave someone to cry, then I'm not worthy to be a priest. Or even a deacon.

We serve. Or we dishonour the Father, and let down the Spirit, and sadden the Son.

Labels: death, diaconate, god, illness, Jo, sermon

Jo's ill

Not too bad - in that she's immediately much more cheery after she's thrown up. But it's been twice today. Once in the car (Catherine's). On both occasions, Jo's told us first: second time round she told us, ran from the bathroom to her bedroom, and threw up in her bin. Which leaked. Bless her.

Labels: illness, Jo

Zoo time

27/09/2008
Originally uploaded by MikeCamel

We had a lovely, lovely time at Colchester Zoo today: just Miri, Jojo and me. I took the girls to give Moo a day off, as I'm off on work travel for nearly 2 weeks tomorrow.

Jo was considerate, patient, obedient, sharing, kind, sensible and generally a joy to be with, and Miri toddled around happily. One of the things that Jo wanted to do was to take some pictures, and this is one of them. She still hasn't got the whole "framing" thing yet, but she _is_ little.

Labels: girls, Jo, miri, zoo